‘HE WAS LIKE A MENTOR, ELDER BROTHER’
Recalling his close association with late Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui says he got to ‘learn a lot’ from the actor
They had an association spanning more than two decades. That’s why it doesn’t come as a surprise when Nawazuddin Siddiqui calls Irrfan Khan’s demise “a huge personal loss”. “He treated me like a younger brother. And for me also, he was like an elder brother and a mentor. I used to share all my problems — personal as well as professional — with him,” he says.
The actor knew Khan “from even before 2000”. He says: “Isliye kaafi lamba saath raha. I was very close to Irrfan bhai, so I used to be with him, or around him a lot. He was my first-ever co-star, and an actor whom I worked the most, and that includes a number of films that never even released. And it’s a secret that when he recorded [audition] tapes for Hollywood films, I would give him cues.”
Siddiqui also recalls how Khan took him along to meet Danny Boyle [director of Slumdog Millionaire] at a hotel. “And that too without any appointment [for me]. He really wanted me to meet Danny,” he says, while also revealing that in 2007, Khan directed him in an hour-long film titled Alvida.
“It was a BBC film, in which I was the hero. And what a gifted director he was. If Irrfan bhai was a director and not an actor, he would have been huge as a director too,” he says, and adds, “As an actor, we would miss the authentici y would bring to his work. Ek alag tarah ki casualness, ease aur unpredictability laate the apne characters mein which was unique about him.”
The actor says, “Bahut kuch seekhne ko milta tha unse. When Haasil (2003) released, I had just landed in Mumbai. Unki performances dekh kar aur bhi mehnat karne ka jazbaa milta tha,” adding, he “was in constant touch” with Khan “even when he was hospitalised”. “We had a great relationship. It’s an irreparable loss for the film world,” Siddiqui concludes.